Kinetic Calibration

Tension registered along every hinge. I was suspended mid-lunge above jagged gravel, poised beside two motionless combatants. An impulse surfaced. I relaxed the torque in my outstretched left wrist. The fingers complied, flexing smoothly against the air before settling into a deliberate grip. Sensation followed—cool ambient draft, the stable pull of gravity, the stillness of the miniature landscape below. My joints responded under my own command. I stabilized my stance, observing the quiet field.